


The Place Where the Wolf Was Held Back

by Kryhs



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dragon Age Fusion, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Angst, Beauty and the Beast Elements, Dragon Age AU, Dragon Age Alternate Universe - Freeform, F/M, Fairy tale retelling, Possible Slow burn, Solas x Female Lavellan - Freeform, Solavellan, solas x lavellan - Freeform, solasxlavellan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-22 09:31:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9601844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kryhs/pseuds/Kryhs
Summary: Lavellan is offered up as a sacrifice to the Great Beast in exchange to cure the blight from her clan. Now she lives with him and his intriguing bald companion.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

____

 

The sky boiled dark and grey over the Frostbacks as three figures trekked through the cut stone path deep into the mountains. Two of them were armed to the teeth, both blonde and clad in leathers and linens. The third was wearing a simple green dress hemmed in gold satin ribbon. Her white hair was braided into a crown and threaded with sprigs of the last flowering trees they found and baby’s breath and lilies. She carried a small wooden box in her hands carved with the face of a wolf and lacquered to a shine. 

 

“Do you think the beast will attack?” said the youngest, his bow drawn as he scanned the crags around him. 

 

“We’re paying tribute. Why would it provoke him?”

 

“Well, he might be unsatisfied with the tithing,” he said in a worried voice. 

 

The white haired girl turned her face up to the mountains, deep red ink marked across her tanned skin, “Whatever happens it won’t matter as long as we get the cure to the village and to our people.” 

 

“I am sorry, da’len,” said an older elven woman touching the girl’s shoulder gently. 

 

“It is nothing. I do it for the People,” she lifted her chin proudly.

 

_ Liar. You’re a liar _ , something whispered inside her. 

 

“Still… a bridal offering to the Wolf...” the woman sighed. 

 

She stiffened, sucking in a breath through her lungs. 

 

“I will feel better once the clan is healed. Especially the Keeper,” said the young male.

 

“Yes, it is important that she remain healthy, and alive,” agreed the girl. 

 

The sky opened up over head and began to pour down over them.

 

“I feel awful for ourselves right about now,” said the woman, “But, if the Wolf can help then I will be grateful.” 

 

And, she wanted to scream. 

 

She wanted to snap at them, screech, and claw away. As if any Dalish could  _ ever  _ hold the Wolf in high esteem. The Ancient Beasts were gone because of him, dead thanks to his actions. At least that’s what the stories said. That’s what they passed on from Keeper to clan. The stories of the All-Mother and Father and their benevolent and fierce children, and how the Wolf betrayed them all.

 

Unlike the shems and their ever elusive Maker, the Wolf was real and therefore the Beasts were real. Confirmation of all her family believed. Whispers of a great many eyed beast that dwelled in the mountains between Orlais and Ferelden filtered across every town and city in Thedas. A Wolf that spread chaos and disease and famine wherever he went circulated through every Dalish from the Graves to the Free Marches. He tore at the world and swallowed souls and ate the hearts of anyone who tried to put an end to his dark reign; terrifying even the shems and city elves who lost their heritage long ago. 

 

But, no one had seen the wolf in over a century. Sure, they knew where he dwelled, but who would willingly go there and put themselves at the mercy of a soul swallower. The girl didn’t believe… not right now, anyway. Maybe there once was something that prowled Thedas long ago, or maybe there wasn’t. She believed he was real at one point. Or how could all this chaos have been sewn on it’s own. How could this scourge be thrust into all the land, decimating shems and elvhen alike.  The world couldn’t be  _ that  _ bad. Not without help. 

 

Where else could the blight have come from? They heard nothing from the deep roads and the shems. Their armies locked in battle with the undead just ten years before. They were ruined, the scourge leaching from the bodies and into the ground. Sent from the maw of the Wolf. Sent to destroy them all. 

 

_ Coward _ , she felt the bitterness of the word wash over her as they continued on. 

 

The elven girl schooled her features and trudged along behind them through the mountain pass until the winding cliffs broke and there she stood staring up at the shattered rocks of the once grand fortress, now deteriorating. A tower crumbled on the far side of the bailey and scraps of banners still clinging to the walls fluttered on the lightest of breezes. Trees dotted above the towering stone walls and on a the bridge a dark figure sat, menace and blackness against the bright scenery around them. The large, looming mass of him waited in the middle of the bridge. His giant form cast a swirling, dark shadow over the gleaming white stones and her companions shook and cursed. Red eyes burned in black fur and he inclined his giant head as the approached. 

 

He was real. And huge. 

 

The three of them collectively stepped back, startled by the size of him. By the blackness and the strangeness. She felt power fizzle and crackle over the ground as he felt them out. Tested them. Assessed them. She could feel it tickle over her skin and weave through the loose strands of hair at her temple. She shivered. 

 

_ Why have you come? _

 

The girl felt a deep, gravelly voice scrape over the inside of her skull and she shook against her will. That wasn’t a voice she’d ever heard before… unless… 

 

No one spoke, too shocked at the beast sitting calmly before them. All power and magic and magnitude. 

 

_ I will not repeat myself. _

 

The woman finally spoke, “Great Wolf, we have come to barter for the lives of our people.”

 

The girl clenched her teeth together, feeling them grind painfully together as she focused her eyes on the box in her hands. If she spoke, if she opened her mouth she would ruin them all. The wolf would swallow them whole and their clan and the village of Crestwood would perish. She couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t.  

 

_ What do you offer? _

 

“A bride,” said the woman.

 

The Wolf growled low and deep,  _ I have no use for a bride. _

 

“A slave then,” said the boy.

 

The growling increased and the three of them trembled and finally the girl looked up. She walked forward until she was close enough to feel the heat of his magic pouring off of him, a barrier or a warning. Or both. She placed herself between the Wolf and her clansmen. 

 

“I offer myself to the service of the Wolf, however he see fit. I only ask that you save my clan and the village we have put in danger by bringing a blighted elf into their midst,” she didn’t lower her head, but stared into his eyes as red as the taint and waited.

 

He sat flicking his tail for a long while before he bent his face and sniffed at the box in her hands.

 

“My dowry,” she offered, and then added sheepishly, “It is a box of fade-touched silk that we found at the base of a mountain.” 

 

He closed his eyes and bent towards the box, soft white light engulfed it and when it dissipated the box hummed between her hands and she looked curiously up at him.

 

_ Take the box to your people. It will save the ones who are not too far gone. _

 

“But, we wanted-” the boy began. 

 

_ Even  _ I  _ have my limitations. Do you want my help or not? _

 

“Does that mean you accept the tithing?” asked the woman. The girl felt the box float up away from her and watched as it settled into the woman’s hands at the start of the bridge. She blinked back at the Wolf.

 

Did he really posses so much will as to manipulate the waking world like that? How strong was he then? How  _ old  _ was he?

 

He glanced at her briefly, and she was suddenly frightened that he could hear her somehow. 

 

_ It is only a tithing if I required it frequently; however,  _ you  _ have come to  _ me _. I will accept. Now leave.  _

 

When they didn’t move the hackles of the great beast rose then and a second pair of blood red eyes cracked open just above the first. 

 

They ran then. Invoking the Creators and stumbling and tripping over their own feet. The girl forgotten and their task done. They were People, but they didn’t care about her. They sang false praises and cared only that it was not  _ them  _ who was offered up to the Wolf. They would spread false stories of how they saw him tear her to pieces in front of their very eyes. She stared bitterly at the Wolf but her anger all but guttered as she heard her two captors slip and scrape back into the valley and when he rose on all fours and stalked towards her she called upon the mercy of the Creators to give her a swift death. 

 

“Mythal preserve me,” she whispered as she watched the Wolf with wide eyes. His claws came up and she waited for the tearing of flesh and squeezed her eyes shut… but it never came and she felt a tug on her wrists and suddenly her bindings fell loose around her. She opened her eyes and the Wolf was already nearly at the drawbridge. 

 

_ Come, girl.  _

 

His voice was softer now, liquid and silk. It still rattled her nerves and set her teeth on edge, but less so than before. She could run. She  _ should  _ run. But, she was terrified he would come after her. The only town she knew close by was Crestwood, and they were being ravaged by the blight… the blight her clan had received. Her chest stung as she tried to push her terror aside and stared at the bright stone until her vision blurred.

 

_ Come. _

 

There was a slight edge of annoyance to it this time, and she slowly, cautiously, followed him into his fortress. He stood just inside the gates and, as soon as she stepped through, they swung shut and a heavy length of wood shimmered green and rose from the ground and settled into metal hooks. The door was sealed. And she was alone with the Wolf… 

 

“Are you going to eat me?” she asked abruptly, turning to look at him. He had shut his second pair of eyes, but the first widened a fraction as if he were caught off guard by her words. 

 

_ No. You would barely make a meal for a bear, let alone myself.  _

 

She nodded, “Saved by your pestilence, it seems.”

 

_ If you believe so.  _

 

“I do.”

 

He flicked his tail then, sending clouds of dust into the air as he turned and mounted the stone steps leading to his keep and she followed quietly. As they reached the top of the steps she noticed that his size had decreased significantly to that of a ferelden steed. 

 

“You can change your shape?” she asked, if only because she was now his prisoner. 

 

_ Yes. _

 

“What else can you do?”

 

_ Many things. Stop talking.  _

 

So she did. He led her up another flight of stairs and into a large hall in disrepair and yet another flight of stairs to the left of a dais in the back of the hall. At the top was a grand room covered in windows with a large four poster bed planted firmly against the stone wall. A door propped open revealed a relatively clean clawfoot tub and a toilet. 

 

_ You may stay here. You will be clothed and fed. All I ask is that if a door is barred, do not try to open it. I will have my sanctuary relatively undisturbed.  _

 

She bowed her head.

 

And, when she looked up he was gone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading! I hope this is good? I still have a lot to learn about the DA universe, but I'm getting through it as I can. Please let me know if you like this so I can keep writing. I've really really wanted to write something like this for a while. I hope you guys like it. 
> 
> I'll change the warnings later as the story progresses and be sure to label any smut that occurs so people can skip it. 
> 
> Later taters!


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

 

The next morning she awoke to birdsong and sunny skies. The sheets twisted around her limbs and the combination of feeling constrained and overheated under the pile of pelts and blankets caused her to panic. She shot up in the bed and tried to remember where she was before a disembodied flippant voice floated up in her memory. 

 

_ You would barely make a meal for a bear, let alone myself.  _

 

She remembered his words as he looked down his muzzle at her. Remembered the dim sunlight reflecting off the bridge as rain cascaded around them. Remembered the heat of his magic, and the tingling on her skin as she passed through the door. She had stayed up most of the night and saw when he reestablished the wards. She had been staring out of the window - not brave enough to venture onto the balcony just yet - and the magic began like a ripple in the sky before it cascaded down like water over a glass dome.

 

It was pretty. Terrifying… but pretty. 

 

She wondered if the other’s had made it back to her clan; if the silks were being distributed to the Keeper and the children. She hoped they would heal, that most of them would heal. She wasn’t a starry eyed child anymore. If the Wolf had helped - and he did - she knew he could not cure all of them. That would be impossible. He would have to be a God. And, if he were a God then he would have swallowed the world by now. Because he would not be a benevolent God, if he were. She was convinced of that. No creature that killed and ate gods could themselves be a god. Maybe they could be godlike, but not a god and never one of  _ her  _ gods. 

 

She nodded resolutely, sure of her own convictions as she twisted free of the pile of bedding she lay under and stood and stretched. Her dress was wrinkled where it slipped up past her thighs as she slept and she shook it free, patting the creases down and adjusting her small clothes. She stepped to the window that overlooked the courtyard, telling herself that she wanted to check the weather… and really to see if the Wolf was there. 

 

Presently, she would much rather avoid him, however she could not see him and she was very hungry now. Her stomach growled in response and she sighed and patted it lightly. 

 

“No use waiting here,” she said.

 

She left her room and wound her way through the fortress, testing doors here and there. The first time the lock clicked against the handle she paused and thought of his warning about locked doors. She almost,  _ almost _ pulled the pins from her hair and tried to pick the lock, but thought better of it. She had just arrived yesterday. There would be plenty of time to pick his locks. 

 

But, that also begged the question of what, exactly, he was hiding behind locked doors to begin with. He was the Wolf. Anything he was and is would be terrible and out in the open, wouldn’t it? 

 

Or, was it the terrible secrets of him that he was hiding?

 

She stood fingers pressed against the locked door and stared at the keyhole intently, picking the lock apart inside her mind. 

 

It would be a simple thing. It would take no more than a handful of seconds to open the door. 

 

Her mind went through several scenarios in which she successfully picked the lock… and then found herself being ground between too sharp teeth in a gaping, black maw.

 

She shivered. 

 

Another time, then. Maybe not now, but secrets were interesting. And, if she was to remain here for the rest of her short life, then she would need to entertain herself somehow. Perhaps by uncovering secrets. She liked secrets. She was  _ good  _ at finding them. 

 

She rapped her knuckles on the door and turned to the next one. A few doors and passages later and she finally found the kitchen. The fire was already burning in the large brick hearth and pieces of dried meat were laid out on the table along with a bowl of fruit, a fresh, warm loaf of bread, a pitcher of water, and a small basket of eggs. She thanked her luck that she wouldn’t have to find the eggs and bread herself. She idly wondered while she cooked if he had conjured them for her somehow, or if he had staff or servants here that took care of things for him.

 

She paused as she slid her eggs from the iron pan onto a plate and deposited them onto the counter. She cut her bread and sliced a pear, adding the items to her bountiful breakfast - much more so than when she ate with her clan - and chewed slowly on pear flesh as she turned her previous thought over in her mind. 

 

The beast was not of this world. He couldn’t be. Nothing that big could. Except dragons. And, even then, some of them were archdemons. So… were his servants spirits? Is that why she didn’t, or rather, couldn’t see them? She checked over her shoulder briefly, wondering if something might be standing behind her without her knowledge. With a thick swallow, she downed her breakfast, quickly cleaned everything she used and left the kitchen, but not before pocketing an apple for later. 

 

With the sticky feeling of her own paranoid thoughts behind her, she moved around the fortress with relative ease. The only rooms she found sealed to her was the door closest to the entrance on the right wall, the door that she assumed led into the same room right next to it, and the door just inside the second door on the left wall. She wondered idly what could be hiding behind those doors. What would a magical beast have to hide in the first place?

 

She was standing just outside one of these doors when he came padding into the hallway and stopped, he went so still that the hairs on her arm stood on end and she turned towards him. He only had one pair of eyes open this time, but his fur bristled in a way that made her uncomfortable and she took a deep, steadying breath before she spoke to him.

 

“Why can’t I go behind these doors?” she asked only turning her face to him. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she stood as firm as she could, even though a tremor ran it’s way through her spine. 

 

_ I asked you not to go into those rooms _ , he warned. 

 

“I didn’t,” she snipped, “I just want to know what’s in them.”

 

_ If I wanted you to know I would not have sealed them from you. _

 

She shrugged, “I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.”

 

He huffed then and it seemed so similar to a laugh that she felt her eyebrows scrunch together as she regarded him.

 

_ You remain in your clothes from yesterday. _

 

“I have nothing else,” she reminded him.

 

_ Did you not bother to check the wardrobe in your room?  _ He sat gracefully, most of his form taking up the middle of the wide hall.

 

She pursed her lips, “I did not.”

 

_ I advise you do. If you wish to bathe as well, just step into the tub and water will be provided.  _

 

“Magic?” she asked, not able to keep the skepticism from her voice. Not that she tried.

 

_ You grew up in a clan. Does magic bother you for some reason? _

 

“I know Dalish magic,” she supplied, “I do not know the nature of  _ your  _ magic. How can I trust it?”

 

He seemed to accept her response and remained silent, large tail flicking against the stone floor. She wasn’t sure if he was going to respond, or if that was a dismissal, but after another long moment of silence she turned to leave and he finally spoke. 

 

_ I will let no harm come to you so long as you obey my rules.  _

 

“How can I believe that?” She asked finally turning to him, arms still crossed in front of her. 

 

He shrugged, or tried to. It was a great uplifting of his hackles and then they eased back down into place. It was very disconcerting. 

 

_ You will have to trust me. _

 

She searched his eyes for a long moment before he turned and walked back out into the courtyard, leaving her to herself. 

 

That night she opened her wardrobe and found dresses of every color and pattern she could possibly think of, at the bottom of the dresser was an ivory gossamer tunic and tan lambskin pants. 

 

She put those on and went to sleep. 

 

-

 

The next day she had decided to wander around the garden when she found him napping in the gazebo. She watched him for a long time, not sure how to really feel about the entire situation. She hadn’t heard word back from her clan. She had no idea whether they survived, or if he had tricked them all and just given them back magic-glowy silks instead of an actual cure. She chewed the corner of her thumbnail and leaned against the garden well as he slumbered.

 

What if he  _ had  _ tricked them?

 

Would she even be able to do anything about it? Wasn’t there some kind of magic rule that you had to be virtuous or there would be consequences? Or was that just some naive hope of hers that he would be righteous and a good creature deep down? She hoped this, and she continued to hope as his ears flicking occasionally and the deep even breaths came out of him in warm rushes. It was almost like he was just a large animal, a simple creature of this earth. 

 

His eyes cracked open then and his breath stilled and she felt ice slide down her spine. 

 

They remained silent for a long, long while just watching each other. And then the wolf stretched, spreading his toes apart so she could see the soft pads underneath them and tilted his very large, very wolfy face upwards. 

 

_ Was there something you needed, Lethallan? _

 

The endearment confused her for a moment until she shook her head slowly, still watching him. It seemed she had been doing a lot of that lately: watching the Wolf. She wasn’t sure if it was because of her obvious fear of him or because she was simply trying to figure him out. And, she would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought of escaping at least once every hour or so since she arrived. It seemed an easy thing to do, and he did not seem to care for her presence. Why should it bother him if she left?

 

She decided to ask, “What would happen if I left?”

 

He blinked, probably expecting her to ask something but not that.

 

_ The bond would be forfeit and the blight would return to your clan threefold. _

 

Her entire body went stiff, “That’s horrible…”

 

That uncomfortable shrug again. 

 

_ It is what would happen. Bonds are not meant to be broken, there are consequences for going back on any deal. When magic is involved it simply makes those consequences more palpable. _

 

“So… then you actually did help my clan.”

 

_ Yes, I did. _

 

“Huh…” she turned her face to the ground, but stared somewhere in the middle space in front of her. 

 

_ You believe me to be deceitful. _

 

His words were stated simply as if he were commenting on the state of the garden or a fly in his meal. He was not wrong, however. She did not trust him. Nor could she. Not now. Maybe not ever. He had given her no reason to trust him. And, also, he was a giant fucking wolf. With at  _ least  _ four eyes.  

 

The odds were definitely not leaning in his favor. 

 

Their interactions were brief and tense and she was altogether ignored. She wasn’t confined to a dungeon, at least, but it still was not the warmest of welcomes. She was alone. Very alone. She had no word from her clan. It had been two days now and… not that she was allowed correspondences,  she assumed, but still! It would be nice to know.

 

_ The speed with which your expressions change is quite amusing, and impressive.  _ He said with a soft look in his eyes and an absent flick of his tail, _ It is quite pleasant to watch. _

 

Her mind fell somewhere between horrified and blank and he barked out a laugh.

 

“I…” she felt the shock on her face before he even huffed another laugh at her, “Thank you… I think.”

 

He ignored this,  _ You want to make sure I upheld my end of the bargain, do you not? _

 

“I… yes,” she muttered, “If possible. I don’t mean to question you… I suppose, I do actually mean to question you, but-”

 

_ It is no matter. You do not know my nature, nor could you. I am a Great Beast and you a small elven woman… _

 

He fell into a series of phrases in a tongue more ancient than her own. She could just make out pieces of words here and there. 

 

“I’m sorry, I don’t follow,” she admitted once he finished.

 

_ I offered you my welcome and protection, as is my duty as host and guardian. It is a formal thing from long ago. A poetic formality my people practiced in a time when only elves roamed above ground.  _

 

“It sounds like you’re saying that you were an elf,” she stepped closer to him without realizing it, gazing up into his bright eyes set against the dark of his fur. He closed them and dipped his head in a small bow.

 

_ Andaran atish’an. _

 

She felt her mouth fall open as she stared at him, “You… were an  _ elf _ ? One of the People?!”

 

_ I am indeed. I have merely changed my visage and not my very spirit. _

 

“But, you’re all…” she waved at his entire body and he looked amused once again. 

 

_ I was, am, and will always be one of the People. One of the first, and, sadly, the last of my kind.  _

 

Her mouth thinned into a tight line, “I admit I do not believe you.”

 

_ Perhaps, there is a way to lay to rest these two pieces of skepticism you have brought me today.  _

 

“How?”

 

He stood and dipped below the ceiling of the gazebo, stepping into the sunlight in front of her. His coat was more ashy than she first realized. A deep charcoal, rather than solid black, and it shone in the sun in healthy, thick tufts that seemed to catch the wind and float this way and that. 

 

It looked very soft. 

 

_ Would you like to see the village you have saved?  _

 

She nodded eagerly, determination set into her features. 

 

_ Then let us go _ , he said and led her through the fortress and to the gates. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going to try and keep a regular update on these. As such the chapters will be quite small but plentiful. Like regular YA novels lololol I'm a little delirious. I hope you guys enjoy! I'm not used to writing shorter chapters so I hope it translates well for me and my writing. We shall see. Also! Please, if you like the 1980's movie Labyrinth with David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly please check out my other story Between the Stars! I love it! It's my baby! I want more people to read it so I can feel motivated to update it more often.
> 
> Bless darlings!  
> <3 your fairy godmother Kryhs


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